Fallout 4 Nick Valentine dialogue with easy garbage is a huge opportunity for garbage story

Fallout 4 Featuring some truly great companions, Nick Valentine is one of the most interesting among them. He is the first synth companion players are likely to encounter and acts as an introduction to the ways Synths and the Institute are viewed by Wastelanders on the surface. But he passes as a plot device and has real depth to his characterization, with his own goals and desires, including his work as a detective and the memories of a past love interest.

Nick even gets a feature role in one of Fallout 4The DLC packages, For HarbourHow he unites with his “brother” Dima. But despite all the ways that Nick Valentine can contribute to the plot and side quests Fallout 4, Parts of his character and events related to him still feel underutilized. One of the biggest missed opportunities players have noticed about Nick’s character is his relationship with the mercenary known as Kellogg, and the experiment that brings them together midway through the game’s main plot.

Kellogg appears to briefly take over Nick Valentine’s mind in Fallout 4

“Dangerous Minds” quest

at the end of Fallout 4In the first act, Nick Valentine helps the player track down and kill Kellogg, the man who killed their spouse and stole their son. This is all well and good, until players discover that Kellogg has information they need to find their son at the institute. Fortunately, all is not lost, since Kellogg has a cybernetic brain implant storing his memoriesAnd Nick knows a doctor who can use the implant to let the players explore the mind of the dead man.

The doctor needs a synth to hook into Kellogg’s brain for the process to work, and Nick volunteers. After the procedure, once players have gotten what they need from Kellogg’s memories, they regain consciousness and are told that Nick recovered a few minutes earlier and is waiting in another room. However, trying to talk to Nick right after the procedure provides a sort of jump scare moment when, Instead of Nick’s voice, the synthetic detective starts speaking like KelloggApparently still knowing and still bloodthirsty.

This moment can be incredibly unsettling, because it comes unexpectedly and suggests that the person they spent so long hunting down has now invaded the mind of a friend. However, it passes quickly, and as soon as players respond, Nick seems to regain control. He has no memory of the eerie lines Kellogg saidAnd he doesn’t seem too concerned about Mark’s presence in his circles. While Nick drops the issue here, many players stay on their toes for a while afterward, waiting for Kellogg to make a reappearance.

Kellog becoming a virus in Nick’s programming could have been a great storyline

It ties in well with the main plot

Unfortunately, that re-emergence never came. Nick’s momentary slip talked like Kellogg never comes up againAnd as the player’s adventures continue, they will probably just forget about the incident, as the game seems to. Nick can remain a companion that stays with the player for the rest of the game, and never seems to show any evidence of turning into a grizzled assassin or betraying the player character as Kellogg gains control.

It’s a shame, because A subplot that went in that direction could be very interestingForcing Nick to deal with how his own personality is just being programmed and could potentially be erased, and allowing Kellogg to persist as a villain. A quest where players must search for a way to remove Kellogg from Nick’s brain before he takes over and turns the friendly robot against them could be very exciting. If the solution is only available through one of Fallout 4S factions, like the Institute, it can also provide additional reasoning for them.

It may also provide a conflict of interest with the quest immediately after exploring Kellogg’s memories, which requires players to venture into the highly-irradiated glowing sea to find an escaped Institute scientist named Virgil. Nick is the obvious choice for companion to bring into the area, as he is radiation-proof and has been found missing people for decades. However, Kellogg’s previous assignment was to hunt down and kill Virgil, meaning that A nick who has a commodity may pose a threat to the scientist unintentionally.

Nick’s role in future content is likely to be prioritized

For Harbour

It’s hard to say why exactly this Nick-Kellogg crossover never came up again. It’s possible that the contents were just left on the cutting room floor; so, Fallout 4 is a huge game, and developers likely needed to review tons of content that they just didn’t have the time or resources to get into the finished product. There is evidence of major and minor content in the game files that was cut but not completely removed, so it wouldn’t be unheard of.

Another likely reason why this subplot was abandoned is because the developers already had Nick’s role in future quests and content in mind. He plays a big role in the US For Harbour DLC if brought along, and Creating a plot point that makes his death possible or will likely jeopardize the content. Bethesda may have decided to leave the Kellogg virus as a small scare without any real consequences for this reason.

It’s disappointing that there aren’t more consequences for this event, and overall, it goes along with the feeling in Fallout 4 That some choices don’t really matter. The game still has many points that let the player decide the fate of certain Commonwealth groups or individuals, but smaller dialogue choices or side quest options can feel flat or inconsequential. Players put Nick at risk by letting him wire Kellogg’s brain into his own, and that risk should have real consequences, Not just a momentary scare that falls by the wayside.